Three's a Disaster
The silence that fell after Diamond left Gabriele and Alessandro in the kitchen, felt suffocating.
Neither brother moved.
The kitchen felt smaller, tighter, as if Diamond had taken the air with her when she walked out.
Alessandro’s chest still rose and fell with the residue of their shouting match, every breath sharp in his throat. His jaw worked silently, like he was biting down on something he couldn’t spit out.
Across the counter, Gabriele’s hands were braced on the edge of the sink, shoulders tense, his gaze fixed on the half-burned pancakes as though sheer willpower could rewind the last five minutes.
They didn’t look at each other at first. They just kept exchanging quick, sharp glances, like they were waiting to see who’d speak first.
When their eyes finally did meet, it wasn’t calm. They glared at each other like they could burn holes through the other's skull.
Gabriele’s expression said, “You’re an idiot.”
Alessandro’s said, “Right back at you.”
A muscle ticked in Alessandro’s jaw. Gabriele’s lips twitched—not in humor, but in the kind of restrained fury that made his knuckles whiten on the counter.
The smell of burned blueberries thickened in the air, sweet turning to bitter, until Gabriele yanked the pan off the burner with a scrape of metal against glass. He tossed it into the sink with a clang that echoed loud, shattering the silence.
“Nice job, Sandro,” he said, finally breaking. “Real smooth.”
Alessandro turned on him instantly. “Me? You were the one flapping your mouth about my love life like this was a high school cafeteria.”
“Oh, please,” Gabriele shot back, “you started the whole thing the second you tried to make it about protecting her. You don’t give a shit about her safety—”
“Say that again,” Alessandro warned, stepping forward. His voice had dropped low, the kind of tone that came before a fist to the face.
Gabriele didn’t back down either. “Fine. You want the truth? You don’t actually like Diamond because she’s her. You like her because she’s Adriano’s. And you can’t stand that there’s something he has that you can’t have for yourself.”
The air between them went knife-sharp.
Alessandro’s jaw clenched, his eyes cold enough to frost over. “Careful, Gabe. You start throwing around accusations like that, you’re gonna regret it.”
“Already do,” Gabriele muttered, turning his back to rinse the pan, though his grip on the faucet was so tight his knuckles turned white. “We crossed a line and we both know it. And if… when Adriano finds out, he’s gonna bury us side by side.”
Alessandro let out a humorless laugh. “You’re acting like it was a one-way street. She didn’t exactly slam the door in either of our faces.”
“Doesn’t make it better,” Gabriele said flatly.
A heavy silence fell between them again.
After a brief moment, Alessandro broke it. “We keep our mouths shut. She does the same. Whatever happened—” he hesitated, just a fraction, “—doesn’t happen again.”
Gabriele glanced at him over his shoulder. “You really think you can stick to that?”
Alessandro didn’t answer right away. His gaze drifted toward the doorway Diamond had disappeared through, his expression unreadable.
When he finally spoke, his voice was much more calm and quiet.
“We don’t have a choice.”